The disclosed invention relates to a support apparatus for one or more electrically conductive rails through which power and control signals are supplied to at least one vehicle operative with the roadway of a transportation system.
A transportation system employing at least one self-propelled rubber tired vehicle which traverses a roadway comprised of laterally spaced parallel tracks is generally described in Transit Expressway Report of MPC Corporation, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213 dated Feb. 20, 1967 and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,180 of E. O. Mueller. In these prior art transportation systems the vehicles are directed along the roadway by guide wheels depending from the bottom of each vehicle and traveling a guide beam supported parallel to the roadway tracks. Electric power is supplied to the vehicle through current collectors in contact with power rails mounted in relation to the guide beam or the roadway tracks. Control signals are supplied to the vehicle through antennas mounted on the roadway by adhesives. See also a published article entitled Transit Expressway -- A New Mass Transit System in the Westinghouse Engineer for July 1965 at pages 98 to 103 and a published article entitled Passenger Transfer System Will Take The Long Walk Out Of Air Travel in the Westinghouse Engineer for January 1969 at pages 9 to 15.
In one power rail mounting arrangement known in the prior art, power rails were mounted in insulative brackets fixed to the roadway tracks such that the rail surfaces in contact with the collectors were in a horizontal plane. This prior art arrangement for mounting power rails required extensive adjustment at the installation site to obtain proper alignment between the rails and the collectors mounted on the vehicle, making this arrangement expensive and difficult to implement. A second power rail arrangement known in the prior art provided for bracketing the power rails to the lower flange of the guide beam, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,308 of W. R. Segar, such that the rail surfaces in contact with the collectors were located below the horizontal plane of the vehicle guide wheels. This arrangement would allow the guide wheels to pass over the power rails and power could be provided to the vehicle as it traveled through roadway switches. However, since the power rails were also located close to the roadbed, this arrangement was susceptible to the accumulation of dirt and moisture on the collection surfaces of the rails.